On August 18, four California Republican state legislators filed a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court to slow down the redistricting bills. The case does not go to the merits of redistricting. Instead, it says that the California Constitution does not permit the redistricting bills to move through the legislature as quickly as the bill’s authors intend. Strickland v Weber, S292490.
In 2016, Marco Rubio was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. His ballot status in the Arkansas Republican presidential primary was challenged by another candidate, David Librace, on the grounds that Rubio’s parents were never citizens of the United States, and therefore Rubio was not a “natural born citizen.” The case was Librace v Martin, e.d., 4:16cv-57.
The decision said that Librace did not have standing, and did not discuss the bigger issues in the case.
Rubio’s attorney, Jason Torchinsky, filed a brief in the case that argues that all persons born in the U.S., except for the children of foreign diplomats and the children of an invading army, are automatically citizens. This stance contradicts President Trump’s position on the matter. Currently Marco Rubio is the Secretary of State.
Don Davis, a Democratic member of the U.S. House from North Carolina, is also affiliated with the Forward Party. See this story, which describes his participation in a Forward Party meeting on August 14.
Here are the election results for the August 18 by-election in Alberta, Canada. Because 214 candidates qualified, the elections office decided to print blank ballots, so that all votes were write-in votes. Each polling place had a list of all the qualified candidates.
Only seventeen candidates got as many as ten votes.
The reason there were so many candidates is that a group deliberately recruited as many candidates as possible, to protest the failure of the Canadian government to switch to some form of proportional representation, after decades of agitation. Canadian House of Commons candidates need 100 signatures, plus a filing fee of $1,000.
Here is a picture of the write-in ballot.
The Texas legislature’s second special session is convening this week. Democrats have returned, but they are subject to having a police escort. One Democratic Representative, Nicole Collier, has said she will remain locked in the capitol building rather than accept a police escort. See this story.
